For instance, industrial output in July increased by 3.7% compared to the previous year, which is slower than June’s growth rate of 4.4%. Furthermore, Chinese banks issued 89% fewer new loans in July versus June, the lowest since late 2009.Continue Reading on Coin Telegraph More
(Reuters) -HP Inc tempered expectations for annual profit on Tuesday, as it grapples with a more than a year-long slump in the personal computers segment and sluggish demand in key market China.Shares of the Palo Alto, California-based company fell 5.2% in after-market trading. Inflation and an uncertain global economy triggered a decline in demand for consumer electronics including PCs last year, and led to increased inventory across the supply chain.”While we expect another quarter of sequential growth in the fourth quarter, the external environment has not improved as quickly as anticipated and we are moderating our expectations as a result,” said HP (NYSE:HPQ)’s CEO Enrique Lores.PC shipments including desktops, notebooks and workstations to China have dropped 19% in the past few months as the region remains cautious about spending on IT, according to analysis firm Canalys.”We don’t see it (a recovery in China) happening anytime soon. And at this point, we are not building that recovery in any of our plans,” Lores added.HP now forecasts adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $3.23 to $3.35 from earlier expectations of $3.30 to $3.50.The company’s third-quarter revenue dropped 9.9% to $13.20 billion compared with analysts’ estimates of $13.37 billion, according to Refinitiv data. However, a focus on controlling costs helped the PC maker report adjusted earnings per share of 86 cents, in line with analysts’ estimates.Total costs and expenses also fell 8.6% from a year earlier. The company remains on track to deliver 40% of its three-year cost savings target by the end of the fiscal year. More
I remember my audacity as a child, just sneaking into the buildings with newspapers and magazines it was called the House of Press, Ismailova recalls in an interview with Cointelegraph. I would handwrite my stories and sneak into the building because I didnt have a pass by making up stories that I was someones granddaughter, or by just going in when someone else entered. And I would find the doors that said editor or editor-in-chief, and I would just walk in and give them my articles. People smiled, and Im sure they felt I was naive, but I felt they also had some respect for me doing this work.Continue Reading on Coin Telegraph More
BENGALURU (Reuters) – New Zealand house prices are forecast to rise again next year due to an ongoing supply shortage and expectations for interest rate cuts, according to a Reuters poll of property market analysts.The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) likely ended a 20-month tightening cycle in May after taking the overnight cash rate from near-zero to 5.50%, a campaign that helped bring down the average house price by 15% compared with the price peak in November 2021.That is short of a roughly 20% correction most property analysts predicted in May following a pandemic-era boom that boosted prices by more than 40%. Prices have started to rise again on returning demand meeting limited available supply.New Zealand house prices were expected to decline 4.8% this year, the latest Reuters poll of 11 property market analysts taken Aug. 14-28 showed. That predicted decline was about half of the 8.0% fall forecast in a May poll.Average property prices were then expected to rise 5.0% and 6.0% in 2024 and 2025, respectively, an upgrade from 3.4% and 5.0% in the previous poll. “Whether or not we’re entering a new FOMO-style state in the housing market is yet to be revealed, but our money is on this not being the case, or at least, that it will not persist,” said Miles Workman, senior economist at ANZ, referring to the “fear of missing out” that drove a market frenzy during the pandemic. “But as we get into 2024, we think the reality of higher-for-longer interest rates will set in, and that still-stretched affordability and rising unemployment will culminate in a very subdued pace of expansion in house prices,” he said.A recent Reuters poll of economists predicted the RBNZ was done raising the overnight cash rate and would leave it unchanged at 5.50% until early next year, lowering it to 4.50% by year-end. While lower interest rates will provide some relief to home buyers, their impact on purchasing affordability among first-time homebuyers was less clear.There was a near split among 11 analysts who answered an additional question on affordability, with six saying it would improve over the coming year and five saying it would worsen.The International Monetary Fund said this week that house prices could stabilise next year, but affordability would remain a concern despite the decline in prices as mortgage rates stayed high and low supply added to price pressures. There was also no respite for potential homebuyers looking to rent instead.All but one of 11 analysts who answered a separate question said average rents for the rest of 2023 will either rise slightly (6) or significantly (4). Only one said average rents would fall slightly. More
Vieira told the country’s farm state caucus in Congress that Mercosur’s counterproposal to the EU’s so-called side letter had been delayed by a change of government in Paraguay. But the Paraguayan reply will be ready by Sept. 17, the farm caucus’s leader, Pedro Lupion, told reporters.Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said during a visit to Angola on Saturday that the EU side letter contained unacceptable “threats” to penalize countries.European negotiators have been waiting since March for a reply to their addendum. The addendum includes environmental safeguards to address strong reservations expressed by many EU member countries about the deal, which has been under negotiation for two decades.Lupion, a lawmaker from Parana state, said the Mercosur counterproposal will include attainable goals, and called the EU side letter “inconceivable.””The European Union guidelines for reducing the climate impacts to the level they want would make agricultural production in Brazil unfeasible,” he said.The farm caucus leader said Brazil should weigh its trade ties with the EU because the European market accounts for 16% of Brazilian food exports compared with 38% for Asia.However, another farm state lawmaker, Jose Medeiros of Mato Grosso, told Reuters the differences over environmental issues were secondary and can be resolved. “This accord should have been signed long ago. It’s a win-win for both blocs,” he said. More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Key U.S. jobs data began approaching pre-pandemic levels in July, a sign of the sort of employment market cooling Federal Reserve officials hope can lower inflation without a sharp rise in the unemployment rate.The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed 2.3% of nonfarm payroll workers quit their jobs in July, down from a rate as high as 3% during the pandemic-driven “Great Resignation.” The reading was the lowest since January 2021, when a wave of resignations was developing, and comparable to what was seen through 2018 and 2019 when a tight job market and low inflation coexisted.The hiring rate last month hit its lowest point since April 2020.Combined, the two data points suggested a drop in labor demand and an easing of hiring conditions, something the U.S. central bank feels is necessary to continue lowering inflation and easing the pressure for wage hikes. The hope among policymakers is for that adjustment to happen without the sharp rise in unemployment that has accompanied prior Fed efforts to tame inflation with interest rate increases meant to slow the economy.The data was encouraging on that front as well. The so-called “Beveridge Curve,” which traces the relationship between job openings and the unemployment rate, has steadily fallen back towards 2019 levels, when a low level of joblessness coexisted with inflation near the Fed’s 2% target.The JOLTS data for July “are moderating back to either pre-pandemic levels or levels that we have not seen in quite some time. It’s an indication the labor market is softening,” said Fiona Greig, global head of investor research and policy at Vanguard, an investment fund manager.Greig said similar trends were seen in a recent analysis of Vanguard’s large stock of data on 401(k) retirement plans, which suggested that hiring conditions are easing not just in “high-churn” businesses in, for example, the leisure and hospitality sector, but also among firms and among positions where employment tends to be more stable.”This seems to be more widespread,” she said.Because the 401(k) data tends to capture higher-paying jobs, slowed hiring in that cohort could be particularly relevant to the Fed’s inflation outlook. Several policymakers have said they think lower-income consumers are already slowing purchases, with overall consumption sustained by those with better earnings.’BREATHING ROOM’ Separate data from the Conference Board on Tuesday showed an overall drop in consumer confidence, a possible sign of a spending pullback to come.After the release of Tuesday’s data, traders in contracts tied to the Fed’s policy rate boosted bets that the central bank will hold rates steady from here on.The Fed is expected to leave that rate in the 5.25%-5.50% range at its Sept. 19-20 meeting. New economic projections due to be released at the end of that gathering will show whether officials still think rates will need to move higher by the end of the year, with incoming data shaping that outlook.Data later this week will provide an updated view on inflation as well as for hiring and wages in August. The strength of the U.S. job market, and continued strong wage growth, has been one factor feeding arguments that the economy is not slowing as expected and that higher rates may be required. Economists, however, are divided about the degree to which rising joblessness will need to be part of the process in creating enough economic “slack” to lower inflation. Fed Governor Christopher Waller has argued that a return of the Beveridge Curve to its pre-pandemic level, driven by a drop in the job openings rate without a rise in joblessness, could do much of the work in returning balance between the supply and demand for workers.A separate measure also watched closely by the Fed, of the number of job openings compared with the number of people without work and looking for a job, remains at around 1.5 jobs per unemployed person. While that is still above the 1.2 level of 2019, it is the lowest it has been since September 2021, and down from the peak of 2-to-1 hit in March of 2022, when the Fed began raising interest rates.”These data likely give the Fed breathing room,” said Oren Klachkin, a financial market economist at Nationwide, though any clear shift in the central bank’s bias to maintain high interest rates won’t change “until the data clearly show that inflation is on a clear and persistent trend to 2%.”Underlying inflation stripped of volatile food and energy costs remains more than double the Fed’s target and had shown little improvement until June. Data for July will be released on Thursday. More
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The UK government has confirmed a fifth delay to the implementation of its post-Brexit border controls on food and fresh products, as ministers admitted the new regime on EU imports would push up prices.The Cabinet Office said on Tuesday that the government’s plans were likely to have an impact on headline inflation, although it insisted the effect was “expected to be minor”, estimating it would increase the rate by less than 0.2 per cent across three years.Ministers confirmed the move, first reported by the FT last week, to push back the launch of new paperwork requirements at the border from October to January. New physical checks on imports, due to come into effect in January, will now start in April.The latest delay to introducing border checks followed Treasury concerns over the inflationary impact of the incoming regime and a request by traders for more time to prepare.The post-Brexit controls on animal and plant products were originally meant to start in 2021. Full checks have been applied to British exports heading into the EU since January 2021, to the fury of UK farmers who believe they are competing against continental rivals on an uneven playing field.Shane Brennan, chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation, which represents the part of the logistics industry transporting products such as perishable food and cut flowers, said the delay was sensible because of the inflationary impact of the new border.“These Brexit checks will fuel food price inflation whenever they are brought in and so the longer they are held off the better,” he said. He described the repeated postponement of the deadline as a blow to the UK government’s credibility.
Brennan also warned that the latest changes to the timetable “will not help us with the already massive task of making EU-based businesses aware that Brexit is, in fact, still not ‘done’ and they have to invest in the processes necessary to sell to UK customers from early next year”.The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), which represents the plant and nursery growing industry, said the revised plan for implementing the new border controls did “not go far enough” to address industry concerns.In May the HTA warned that the new checks would impose costs of over £42mn a year in additional red tape on plant imports worth over £750mn a year, the bulk of which come via the EU.Fran Barnes, HTA chief executive, added that while the new plan had addressed some of the sector’s worries, there also remained a “major concern” over the readiness at the border to conduct physical inspections of imports.William Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, was more welcoming and said businesses would “be pleased with this clarity as they prepare for the challenging shift to a digital trade system”. But he warned that ministers had to ensure the new regime would be operable within the timescale they had set out.Nick Thomas-Symonds, Labour’s shadow international trade secretary, accused the government of presiding over a “chaotic mess” given the successive failures to put in place new post-Brexit border controls. “Leaving major changes until so close to the implementation deadline is unacceptable,” he added.The new border controls would use data and technology to cut red tape for traders, the government said. It added that after listening to businesses the changes it had made to its previous proposals for the post-Brexit border regime would reduce the costs to industry by an estimated £520mn. More
